Close air support roles include supporting ground troops, escorting convoys, and flying urban operations. The gunship's sole user is the United States Air Force, which uses AC-130H Spectre, AC-130U Spooky, AC-130J Ghostrider, and AC-130W Stinger II variants for close air support, air interdiction and force protection. The basic airframe is manufactured by Lockheed, while Boeing is responsible for the conversion into a gunship and for aircraft support. The AC-130A Gunship II superseded the AC-47 Gunship I during the Vietnam War. During the Vietnam era, the various AC-130 versions following the “Pave Pronto” modifications were equipped with a magnetic anomaly detector (MAD) system called the Black Crow (AN/ASD-5), a highly sensitive passive device with a phased-array antenna located in the left-front nose radome that could pick up localized deviations in earth's magnetic field.The Lockheed AC-130 gunship is a heavily-armed ground-attack aircraft variant of the C-130 Hercules transport plane. By December 1968 most AC-130s were flown under F-4 Phantom II escort from the 479th TFS, normally three Phantoms per Gunship. By 30 October 1968, enough AC-130 Gunship IIs arrived to form a squadron, the 16th Special Operations Squadron (SOS) of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing (TFW), at Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand. The AC-130 Gunship first arrived in South Vietnam on 21 September 1967 under the Gunship II program, and began combat operations over Laos and South Vietnam that year. Force protection missions include defending air bases and other facilities. Air interdiction missions are conducted against planned targets and targets of opportunity. Close air support roles include supporting ground troops, escorting convoys, and flying urban operations. The US Air Force uses the AC-130 gunships for close air support, air interdiction, and force protection.
The AC-130A Gunship II superseded the AC-47 and the AC-119 in the Vietnam War. The basic airframe is manufactured by Lockheed, and Boeing is responsible for the conversion into a gunship and for aircraft support. The Lockheed AC-130 gunship Spectre is the heavily-armed close-support version of the popular C-130 Hercules.
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